Roads and Places Their History and Interest.
Page 22
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WHEN you unfold your road-map on the hearthrug one of these winter's nights, after a two days' drive which has brought the lorry up from the West Riding with a load which was obtained at a good figure because the consignees wanted great care taken of it, you may, in a flight of fancy, hear a tale of history and romance, of effort and adventure. Maps of this kind are instructive, fascinating things, and can tell (if you would hear) many a fine tale of the road.
In Yorkshire one hears names like " t'owd wagon road" and " tiowd coach road "—expressive of the special uses these highways had in past times. In some cases the old name may be identified in the present one ; in all, the student has sufficient inducement to further inquiry.
In the same neighbourhood is Wakefield Bridge, forming a somewhat dangerous _bottle-neck connection between Leeds and Bradford in the north and Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster and other places on the road to the south.
Hereabouts fell the young Earl of Rutland, following the defeat (by the'Lancastrians) of his father's forces.
Leland, sent here by Henry VIII, reported "the faire bridge of nine arches" and the Chantry chapel which is built into it.
Standing beside this chapel to-day one may watch the latest 30-cwt. W D. subsidy model pass, and the Ford carrying films -to the newest super-cinema.
Every ancient, bridge is an open page of real history. Near here is Heath Common, with a Roman road crossing it at one point.
In the south the tale of more recent times is no less interesting. There is a certain road at the foot of the South Downs. The uneven tenor of its .way, and the sudden enormous increase of traffic brought about by the war, were together, responsible for its soft and sorry condition in 1918. About that time, however, came the surveyors of the East Sussex County Council, who planned a wider road and a gentle contour; arranged that the chalk cut away in the widening should be pressed into service in the foundations ; requisitioned a stiffening of Kent ragstone ; spread a generous layer of Sussex flints, and finished with three grades of tarmac.
These specification details may make heavy reading until one learns that this Newhaven to Seaford road was remade by conscientious objectors, that the fact is recorded in the low, flint wall rebuilt at the Seaford end, and that the step of the inn at this place was the base for some of the calculations made by the surveyors.
To the curious, all these and many more discoveries are possible ; they constitute what the journalist calls news.'
People travelling by omnibus will beg:n to ask for such news, especially of the great trunk roads. At the cinema they may see an " interest " film showing the Grand Canyon ; what they will soon want to see is one which will tell them about the Great North Road, its points of particular interest, its wayside inns and its news. A company making "travel films " might well do a series of British roads.
The maps issued, at a nominal figure, by local passenger-carrying companies, and the far-reaching lines upon them, leave us without excuse for ignor ance on a subjectwhich, having once aroused our curiosity, will provide ample material for further., study. FREDERICK W. Porr.